THE ROYAL NAVY operated over 2,000 F4U Corsairs during World War Two. It was flying them from aircraft carriers when the U.S. Navy had declared the aircraft unsuitable for deck operations.
“Of all the aircraft I had seen, it was the most wickedlooking bastard. It looked truly vicious. I saw no reason why a Corsair shouldn’t kill me and that day I sat down and typed my last will and testament.”
—Lt. Norman Hanson, RNVR 1833 NAS (later Lt. Cdr. DSC), July 1943
Fighters for the Fleet Air Arm
At the start of WW II in September 1939, the British Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm consisted of 20 Naval Air Squadrons with just 232 aircraft. In the early part of the war, the Royal Navy’s fighter aircraft requirements were met by cumbersome two-seat designs, such as the Blackburn Skua and the Fairey Fulmar, on the assumption that the only opposition they would meet would be long-range bombers or flying boats. When actual operations, particularly in the Mediterranean, proved this to be a false assumption, the Royal Navy hurriedly adopted higher performance, single-seat fighter aircraft, such as the Hawker Sea Hurricane and the rather fragile Supermarine Seafire, both modified, hooked versions of RAF landbased fighters. However, neither of these types had sufficient range to operate at any great distance from a carrier task force.
During the early war years, the Royal Navy (RN) acquired some batches of American aircraft built for other countries, such as France, Belgium and Greece, which did not reach their intended buyers due to the German advances in Europe. Most notably, the Grumman F4F Wildcat, initially known as the “Martlet” by the RN, entered Fleet Air Arm (FAA) service this way, and on December 25, 1940, a Martlet from 840 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) was the first U.S. fighter in British service to shoot down a German aircraft.
The implementation of the Lend-Lease program,
